O my country
The JVC volunteers are having a Europewide meeting and the volunteers from this country have to go and represent Britain. One from each community. They have to take some British food and talk about Britain. This task is being attempted by SaeWon from Korea and a Ugandan, a German and a guy from Northern Ireland. So I said to the girls, “what is distinctive about Britain then? What have you noticed coming from your countries?”
They said:
The people are very friendly. The stranger you see on your route to work in the morning is much more likely to smile at you here than in Poland or Switzerland.
People are crazy. In Poland everyone wears winter clothes in winter and summer clothes in summer. But you British, some of you are wearing no sleeves, some huge coats and scarves. If you went out in a summer dress a day like yesterday in Poland someone would come up to you and ask if you were crazy but here it is acceptable.
People take voluntary work very seriously. Volunteers are committed to their work, punctual and dedicated. They take it as seriously as they do their jobs. And the systems are in place for supporting volunteers, it’s not considered an odd thing to do. You care who does the work volunteers do. The safeguards that are in place to protect children are so much better than in Korea.
I guess that is a Britain I recognise but not the first things I would have thought to say. And it’s a positive picture. I don’t find it easy to take pride in my country, not when we’re invading Iraq, bombing Afghanistan, failing to welcome asylum seekers, getting drunk at football matches. Our national anthem is “God save the queen” for crying out loud. I wonder if it’s time for us lefties to get some of that Billy Bragg style patriotism and stop being ashamed of our country, not allow patriotism to be solely claimed by racists, louts, monarchists and rather conservative people who are proud of the pound and such like.
They said:
The people are very friendly. The stranger you see on your route to work in the morning is much more likely to smile at you here than in Poland or Switzerland.
People are crazy. In Poland everyone wears winter clothes in winter and summer clothes in summer. But you British, some of you are wearing no sleeves, some huge coats and scarves. If you went out in a summer dress a day like yesterday in Poland someone would come up to you and ask if you were crazy but here it is acceptable.
People take voluntary work very seriously. Volunteers are committed to their work, punctual and dedicated. They take it as seriously as they do their jobs. And the systems are in place for supporting volunteers, it’s not considered an odd thing to do. You care who does the work volunteers do. The safeguards that are in place to protect children are so much better than in Korea.
I guess that is a Britain I recognise but not the first things I would have thought to say. And it’s a positive picture. I don’t find it easy to take pride in my country, not when we’re invading Iraq, bombing Afghanistan, failing to welcome asylum seekers, getting drunk at football matches. Our national anthem is “God save the queen” for crying out loud. I wonder if it’s time for us lefties to get some of that Billy Bragg style patriotism and stop being ashamed of our country, not allow patriotism to be solely claimed by racists, louts, monarchists and rather conservative people who are proud of the pound and such like.